Japanese Story
2003 Directed by Sue Brooks
Synopsis
Against the background of an Australian desert landscape, so much space and so few people, Sandy, a geologist, and Hiromitsu, a Japanese businessman, play out a story of human inconsequence in the face of the blistering universe. The end of the journey leaves no-one capable of going back to where they started from.
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Sandy (played by Toni Collette) is persuaded to look after a visiting Japanese businessman (played by Gotaro Tsunashima) in the hope that the tours he wants to take around various mines in the north western desert of Australia will lead to a deal with her company. She dislikes him from the moment he arrives, and knows that this trip is going to be a nightmare.
She is right, but the nightmare isn't remotely as she expected. I really enjoyed this - it may have been a help not to know where the film was heading (avoid genre tags!) - and found it utterly convincing. Toni Collette was very good in her role and was able to convey the changing emotions her character experienced.
This film is on Lovefilm Instant until 11th March.
Recent reviews
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Sandy (played by Toni Collette) is persuaded to look after a visiting Japanese businessman (played by Gotaro Tsunashima) in the hope that the tours he wants to take around various mines in the north western desert of Australia will lead to a deal with her company. She dislikes him from the moment he arrives, and knows that this trip is going to be a nightmare.
She is right, but the nightmare isn't remotely as she expected. I really enjoyed this - it may have been a help not to know where the film was heading (avoid genre tags!) - and found it utterly convincing. Toni Collette was very good in her role and was able to convey the changing emotions her character experienced.
This film is on Lovefilm Instant until 11th March. -
From the get-go, Japanese Story feels like it has a gloomy date with destiny. Something about it feels innately - and bluntly - pre-ordained. It's most nauseating feature is how it seems to play on the audience's expectations of this something, to a fault. The first act bounces through genre tags - fish-out-of-water/odd couple/working girl's inconvenient bump in the road of contentment - and plays with the viewer on more than one level (i.e. - there's foreshadowing about [plot point withheld], but there's also the feeling that you've sat down to watch, um, this generic crap). Then the second act - whose twist you'd have to be blind to miss - comes along, practically saving the movie by moving it…
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I always thought Australian women were butch and Japanese men were dainty. This movie was the perfect flip of the male gaze. Laura Mulvey would be proud.
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Unexpected. Very unexpected.
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Collette is wonderful in this Aussie romantic drama.